NDP Told Manitobans Deficit Would Be $90 Million Smaller - Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

NDP misled Manitobans, deficit now 20 per cent bigger: Friesen

October 02, 2014

Release of the NDP government’s books revealed that the deficit is $90 million bigger than the Finance Minister said six months ago.

“In March, the NDP told Manitobans that the deficit for the year was smaller than expected. But now that we can review the audited books, we find out that the deficit is $90 million larger than we were told it would be,” said Finance Critic Cameron Friesen. “It seems that the NDP can’t even keep track of its own wasteful spending.”

In February, the Finance Minister stated that the NDP government “remains on track and even doing a little better than expected in reducing our deficit,” and that the deficit would be $432 million, which was lower than she expected. The true numbers were finally released yesterday and the deficit was $522 – a $90 million difference.

Not only is the deficit $90 million higher than Manitobans were led to believe, it would be bigger than last year’s deficit if it wasn’t for the unexpectedly cold winter. The NDP only expected to receive $72 million in Manitoba Hydro profit for the year, but we now know that they received a whopping $174 million. This unanticipated windfall is helping the NDP hide the fact that the deficit is actually getting worse.

“If it wasn’t for the coldest winter in a century and Manitoba Hydro’s $100 million surprise, the deficit would actually be $624 million,” said Friesen. “That would have been a $44 million increase over last year.”

The NDP cannot be trusted to balance the books. They promised to balance the budget this year, but the deficit is only getting worse.

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